The former, while there, under a significant type, predicted the conquest of Egypt by the Babylonians, which prediction was verified by Nebuchadnezzar.

MIGDOL.

The name Migdol signifies "a tower," and may have been common to several places distinguished by objects of that kind. There appears, indeed, from Scripture, to have been two cities of that name in ancient times. Thus the prophet Jeremiah represents one as belonging to Egypt Proper, see chap. xlvi. 14; and in the neighbourhood of Tahpanes, or Daphnæ. This favours the supposition of its being the present Migdol; and Bochart observes on this text, that we find the places named exactly in the order of the distance from Judea: first, Migdol, or Magdolus; secondly, Tahpanhes, or Daphnæ; thirdly, Noph, or Memphis; and, lastly, the district of Pathros, or Thebais. We may presume this city to have been that which Herodotus mentions under that name, and which the itinerary of Antoninus reckons a little to the south of the Delta, about twelve miles from Pelusium. But this was too far distant from the Red Sea to be in the route of the Israelites when departing from Egypt; and therefore we may conclude that there was a second Migdol in Lower Egypt, towards the Red Sea, and at which the Israelites encamped. See Exod. xiv. 2.

NOPH, MENOPH, OR MEMPHIS.

Memphis was the renowned capital of Lower Egypt. On what site it stood, however, has been much disputed. Dr. Shaw, and others, contend that it must be sought at Ghizeh, nearly opposite to Old Cairo; but other eminent travellers and geographers, comparing the statements in ancient authors. with existing appearances and traditions, have fixed its position with greater probability considerably more to the south, near the village of Metrahenny, on the western bank of the Nile. On this spot there are indications of extensive ruins in the form of mounds, channels, and blocks of granite, many of which are covered with sculptures and hieroglyphics, and which are considered, in the focality, to form the remains of Menf, or Memphis, the royal seat of the Pharaohs.

We have seen, in the article Thebes, that Memphis superseded that city as the capital of Egypt. To explain this, we

would observe, that Egyptian traditions, as preserved by the Greek historians, and confirmed by modern research, state, that Upper Egypt was the first settled and brought under cultivation. From thence colonies proceeded into Middle and Lower Egypt, which became the parents of other colonies, till the whole was settled. The principal of these colonies, it would appear, soon assumed or acquired the character of independent states or kingdoms, each with its own metropolis; and Memphis seems to have been the earliest of those settlements below the Thebais, as the seat of such a state or kingdom. According to Herodotus, it was founded by Menes, the first king of Egypt, who turned the channel of the river, and built the city in the ancient bed, where the strait between the Arabian and Libyan mountains is narrowest. This statement, in the opinion of many travellers, is corroborated by the actual appearance of the river at the spot where, according to this historian, the stream was "dyked off;" namely, at 100 stades, or about twelve miles, above Memphis. Herodotus thought that the valley above Memphis, where it widens, was once a bay of the sea, but was gradually raised by the alluvions of the Nile, which also in his opinion formed the Delta. This opinion seems to have been formed by a mistake as to the meaning of a passage in Homer; but it would confirm the supposition that the Mediterranean was once much higher than at present, and that it was lowered by the disruption of the straits of Gibraltar.

At what time Memphis became the paramount metropolis of Egypt, it would be difficult to state; but as the capital of Lower Egypt, and as the metropolis of the country, it would appear that Noph, or Memphis, was the great city of the Pharaohs with which the Old Testament Hebrews were best acquainted, and to which there are the most frequent references in Scripture, from the time that good old Israel went down into Egypt to the days of the prophet Jeremiah. the former date, it was, probably, the capital of that part of Egypt with which the Hebrews were most familiar; and at the latter, it still remained as the metropolis, notwithstanding that, since the reign of Psammetichus, the kings of Egypt had made Sais the usual seat of their residence.

At

The wealth and the glory of Memphis are spoken of by most ancient writers; but concerning the details little or nothing is recorded; and Noph is so utterly waste, according to the prediction of the prophet, Jer. xlvi. 19, that the deficiency cannot be supplied from existing remains, as at

Thebes. Its magnificent temples are, however, mentioned, particularly those of Apis and Vulcan; and Diodorus describes the city as about 150 stades, or between seventeen and eighteen miles, in circumference. There are, moreover, remains of a different and not less striking kind, which denote its ancient grandeur. These are the pyramids; for the situ ation of Memphis, regarded as near Metrahenny, is central with respect to these far-famed structures, being as it were in the midst of them; and it is to be observed, that ancient historians usually considered the pyramids as pertaining to Memphis. Other monuments marking the city itself, save that of the mounds, a few fragments of granite, some substruction, and a colossal statue of Ramases II., there are none; so completely has the prediction of its desolation been accomplished. This desolation is the more remarkable when we consider that the glory of Memphis was only impaired by the devastations of the Persians, and that when eclipsed by Alexandria it continued to be the second city of Egypt, as recorded by Strabo, and that about as late as the time of our Saviour. The Arabian geographer, Abulfeda, notices, indeed, in the fourteenth century, the extensive remains of Menf, as still evincing the ancient importance of that renowned city. But these appear to have been employed in the erection of the more modern cities which have arisen in that part of Egypt where Memphis stood; or to have been gradually covered by the encroaching sands of the desert, or the alluvions of the Nile, so that nothing now remains of all its glory but that described.

SYENE

Syene was the most southern city of the Thebais, bordering on Nubia. By the prophet Ezekiel, the whole extent of Egypt, from north to south, is described as "from the tower of Syene even unto the border of Ethiopia," Ezek. xxix. 10; xxx. 6. Migdol, which is incorrectly rendered "tower" in our version, and which should be preserved as the proper name of the town near the Red Sea, as noticed before, was in the north of Egypt, while Syene was its southern frontier. The cataracts of the Nile, which occur above this place, and the difficult navigation of the river, form a natural boundary line; so that Syene, now called Assouan, has always been considered the frontier town of Egypt in this direction. Strictly speaking, the boundary is formed by the mighty ter

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races of that peculiar reddish granite called syenite, which, shaped into peaks, stretch across the bed of the Nile, and from which the Egyptians obtained the stone so frequently employed by them in their obelisks and colossal statues.

The town of Syene retained its importance for many ages. This is certified by the ruins of works and buildings reared by the Pharaohs, the Ptolemies, the Romans, and the Arabians, which are still seen on and around the site of the old town. The town Assouan, which succeeded it, so closely adjoins the old town on the north, that the northern wall of the latter forms the southern wall of the former. The scenery in this part is very striking. Madox, in his " Excursions in the Holy Land, Egypt, etc.," thus describes it: "The river is rocky here, and the navigation, by night at least, dangerous. At the pass of Assouan ruin and devastation reign around. This pass, which nature has so well fortified, seems ill treated by man. Hardly any thing was to be seen but the vast remains of the old town of Syene, with mud-built walls and hovels on every side. Rocks, forming islands, were in the middle of the stream, upon which shrubs were growing. The scene altogether was wild and forlorn. In the distance appear high mountains, or masses of stone, with trees, corn, and grass of great height, extending to the water's edge." The removal of the town is said to have occurred a. D. 1403, in consequence of a plague, which destroyed 21,000 of its inhabitants, from which fact the reader may discern the ancient and also the comparatively modern importance of the town.

ALEXANDRIA.

This renowned city of Egypt owed its origin to Alexander the Great, who, during his visit to that country, (about в. c. 332,) gave orders for its erection, between the sea and the Mareotic Lake. The architect was Dinocrates, a Macedonian. A large part of it was contained within the present walls, which are chiefly the work of the Arabs. One main street, about four miles in length, ran through the city from the eastern extremity to the Necropolis, or "city of the dead," at the western, and this was intersected by another main street, about one mile and a quarter in length, running nearly north, in a direction from the Mareotic Lake. This was to obtain the benefit of ventilation from the north winds. The main land and the isle of Pharos was connected by a dyke, called the Heptastadium, in which there was a passage for

vessels, from one port to the other at each end. Over these passages there were bridges, probably of great height, since we are told that water was conveyed along this dyke to the Island of Pharos. On the rocks occupied by the present Pharos, a magnificent light-house was constructed by Sostratus of Cnidus, in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, the height of which, report says, was 400 feet. The point op posite to the Pharos, was called Lochias, and as this point was prolonged towards the Pharos along some rocks, it received the name of Acro-Lochias, or the "Point of Lochias." Between this point and the obelisks, the palace of the Ptolemies, the theatre, and various temples once stood. There were two ports; one bounded by the north-east part of the city, and the Heptastadium, called the great port, and the other called Eunostus, or 66 17 safe return.' This latter also contained a small port, called Kibotos, or "the chest," because the entrance could be completely closed. No traces of this can now be discovered. A canal, uniting the lake with port Eunostus, terminated in or near port Kibotos, and was nearly the south-west limit of the city. There was also a canal from the lake to the town of Canopus, situated near the mouth of the western branch of the Nile, by means of which the city was supplied with river water, which was kept in cisterns. These, it would appear, were very numerous. A Roman writer says, "Nearly all Alexandria was undermined, and furnished with subterranean aqueducts, to convey the Nile water to private houses, where, after a short time, it became purified." Traces of such are now found on the site of an

cient Alexandria."

The city of Alexandria was divided into five quarters, but neither the limits nor the names of each can be assigned. The court end, or Bruchion, comprised the part between the Lochias, the site of the obelisks, and the eastern or Rosetta gate. This part contained also the museum. The part called Rhacotis, which bordered on port Eunostus, contained the great temple of Serapis, which, after the establishment of Christianity, was a grievous offence to the Christians, and as such was destroyed by Theophilus, the patriarch of Alexandria, A. D. 390, by permission of the emperor Theodosius.

The city of Alexandria was embellished by the Ptolemies with the spoils of the more ancient towns of Egypt, and it continued to receive accessions and improvements for several centuries. At one period of time, it was the rival of Rome in magnitude, and the greatest commercial city of the earth.